First Coalition War
Following a period of calm between the major powers, tensions began to mount once more. The Northman raiding parties had begun to target factions friendly to their old allies, the Order of Dalmaitus, and had also begun stepping on the toes of the isolationist Brotherhood, driving both their old Triad allies away. Eventually, they struck once too much, in an attack on Ascalon, bringing the Order into a war against them alongside a host of smaller nations that would later follow. The Dwarven Empire, eager to reclaim their position as a Major Power in the aftermath of the Northern-Dwarven War, also declared war on the already heavily outnumbered Northmen. = Background = Prior to the outbreak of war, the Server was divided into a range of factions who varied in strength. The "Major Powers" on the server being the Order of Dalmaitus, the Men of the North, the Dwarven Empire, and The Brotherhood. In addition to these major states, numerous middle-ranking powers existed, such as the Palamaine Republic, Ascalon, the Kingdom of Prussia, the Privateers and Etat De l'Or. Tensions had been rising between the once-allied states of the Northmen and the Order, as the North's aggressive ways had begun to infringe upon groups friendly to the Order. Namely, the Egg Incident at the Legion's town, and Etat's harrasment of de facto Order protegee Sun-Tzomas. The Dwarven Empire, defeated in the First Northern-Dwarven War by a combined Northman-Order army, had rebuilt their strength and sought to re-restablish themselves on the world stage. Previous diplomatic arrangements had been made with the Order, so that if any of the would be signers was attacked by the Men of the North, the other would come to its aid. This followed the political idea of balance of power, thus the Order worked until this moment in history as a "balancer" throwing its weight on one side of the scale or the other curtailing the growth of a potential threat, first during the First Northern-Dwarven War, supporting the Men of the North and now allying its rival to stop further Northmen agression. The Brotherhood remained isolationist in nature, and showed no interest to join the conflict. = Lead Up to War: Opening raids and skirmishes = On the 29th of April, 2012, conflict between the nations of Etat de l'Or and Ascalon began when Etat raided the nation of Scotland, prompting Ascalon, self-proclaimed defenders of Scotland, to retaliate by raiding the Etat de l'Or base, killing Etat forces present and looting the base. Shortly afterwards, a Northman-Palamaine taskforce, allied to the Etat Empereur, struck the Ascalon base in a retaliatory strike. Despite Ascalon's troops mobilising and engaging the Northmen in battle, the superior equipment and organisation of the Northmen forces proved to be too much: Ascalon's army was wiped out, with no Allied losses. = Declaration of War on the North = The Order, watching from the sidelines, decided to take action upon seeing the Northman intervention in the skirmish war. War was officially declared upon the North by the Order. Both sides began mobilisation and the best equipment from the national armouries was passed around. The North was joined by the allied state of Palamaine, as well as Etat de l'Or and IceBandits. The Order was joined by Ascalon. Seeing the North finally facing a foe it could not crush in short order, other states mobilised their own forces: both the Privateers and the Dwarves declared war on the North and joined the Order and Ascalon, forming the "First Coalition". Diplomatic efforts to draw the Brotherhood into the war proved unsuccessful when the Brotherhood voted unanimously to remain neutral. = The First Day = Battle of Odenstad The Coalition armies gathered near the South Portal, preparing to launch the war with an offensive on the Northman capital. Advance elements of the army, already operating at the Northman capital, were destroyed by the Northman home forces. The main body of the Coalition army arrived shortly after, assaulting the defences of the North, a trap was set up when half the coallition forces were forced to stay outside due to the portcullis being closed, but after regaining the advantage the Northman capital was captured. The Northmen made use of their portal to the Safe Zone to fight a harrassment war, resulting in the death of two Dwarven soldiers. No Northmen were slain. Additional casualties were incurred on the Coalition side when a Privateer war party was mistaken for enemy forces by the Order, resulting in the death of 1 Privateer before the confusion was cleared. The final battle of the evening took place outside of the North's base where elements of the North struck down an Ascalonian Patrol, soon 4 Dwarves were there to avenge their ally, and after a fierce melee the Northmen were forced to retreat. Raids on Allied forces Shortly after this battle, elements of the Coalition army composed of the elite commandos of both Ascalon and the Order, followed by the Scotland tribesmen, also struck Etat's base; killing all the members inside it and an Icebandit that had rushed to help his allies. This battle resulted in the capture of Etat's main armoury and drastically increasing their war exhaustion. In a daring late night raid ChocoboKnight, King of Ascalon, and Nerva1993, Knight-Captain of the Order, attacked Palamaine looking for loot and to reduce the enemy's forces by killing Palamaine's members when they least suspected. After scouting for almost an hour the commandos found some of Palamaine's storage rooms but were unable to find the enemy. = The Second Day = Skirmish at Odenstad A Coalition commando known only as "Benz, Reaper of the North", killed 2 Northman soldiers solo in a daring attack. After infiltrating the Northern base, Benz stumbled upon Apple. Not wanting to kill the poor man, he told the builder to log out so that he wouldn't have to be slain. Seeing that the odds were not in his favor, Apple complied. Following this, Benz left the Northman base, thinking that Patrick was raiding the Order's base whilst he stood around in the Northmen's base. Just as Benz arrived back home, Malevolent_Tyrant logged on and ordered Benz to leave the Northman's fort, claiming that the Northmen held an overwhelming advantage due to their numbers. Realizing the Northmen still thought he was at their base, and must thereby be searching for him, Benz rushed back to the Northlands to attack. After infiltrating the Northman base a second time, Benz once again stumbled upon Apple. Seeing the man in menacing iron armor and a deadly stone sword, Benz cut his enemy down. Seeing this, Patrick and Malevolent began asking where the fruit was slain, and when Apple responded, the Northmen stated in public chat that they were at their Public City, searching for Benz there. Benz quickly shut the gate to the castle before the enemy could return home, just as the two Northmen arrived at the drawbridge. Arrows were shot back and forth between the three diamond-armored soldiers for roughly a minute before Malevolent grew impatient and began moving around the base of the walls searching for another entrance. Benz saw his opportunity and followed Malevolent from the walls, with Patrick still trying to get in at the main gate. Benz then dropped down from the Northmen's walls behind Mal and ambushed him. Mal lasted a seconds before dying. No sooner had Malevolent fallen than Patrick arrived on the scene. The duel was glorious, two warriors trading blows beneath the snow-covered pine trees outside the Northmen's walls, but ultimately Benz emerged victorious, carrying off two sets of enchanted diamond armor and swords in loot. Phoney Ocupations Later that day the Coallition troops from the Order, the Dwarves and Ascalon took the Northmen's base and tried to sabotage it to prevet it's members from assaulting the Coallition troops from the security of the safezone, in the meantime a big Northman warband occupied the Order's base. Tired of inaction some Coallition members departed the occupied base and the Northmen logged off, after this Gendarme Hilary_Duff accidently pressed a mechanical device that blew up the Norths' Portal, costing the life of Knight-Captain Skivvies. The damage was considered excesive so some members of the Coallition were jailed and the damage restored by Mangerman. Dwarven Offensive Later that day Ascalon was attacked again, leading to a prompt response from the allied troops. The core troops of the Dwarven Imperial Army, guided by Knight-Captain Nerva2004 of the Order, quickly arrived to the assailed base where Ascalonian citizen Ingloriousthomas received them with open arms. However the Northmen's Huskarls had already dissapeared from the area. After being forced to allow safe exit of two Dwarven soldiers, due to their taking of a hostage, Palamaine deliberated and ultimately decided to defect to the Coalition, leaving the Northmen entirely unsupported. = The Third Day = The Palamaine republic officially surrendered this day and joined the Coalition. Ascalon also kicked Ingloriousthomas, improving their manpower. Early this day Dwarven and Privateer troops had rushed to Order base to defend it from a possible attack; however it was a trick because Northmen's troops were in Solgundir, where they slew the Ascalonian Fortesgt as he was patroling his allies city. The Dwarven army returned inmediatly but the aggressors had already left. A few hours later a Coalition army lead by Knight-Captain Nerva2004 sought to find the Northman Crossjon and slay him. However they arrived to discover Odenstad deserted. After this failed offensive and having Order's best fighters jailed, a huge coallition army, composed of Ascalon's Royal Army, Scotland's warbands, and Men-At-Arms of the Order, went on to attack Etat de l'or. Finding emperor Celoxia waiting for them at the portal, the troops were confused by the emperor's harrasments and he finally called for a 1v1 duel against Scotland's king HurryinGun. The King agreed, but when Celoxia was about to deliver the last hit Ascalonian troops interfered and quickly cut down the Emperor. This expedition also found an abandoned Icebandit base that was completely sacked. After Order Grandmaster Benz's liberation from his punishment, he lead his army to Etat de l'Or again where peace was offered to Emperor Celoxia. After his refusal, Order and Ascalonian Men-At-Arms looted what little was left in the city, but they didn't count on the Emperor's clever scheem; first Benz fell recieving fall damage and later Chocoboknight and Nerva were lured into a ladder were the Emperor traped them. However, after a prolonged ladder duel, Celoxia ran away but was shot down by Nerva minutes later. As a final action of the day an Order detaatchment composed of Nerva and Benz attacked Odenstad, and while being separated Nerva was shot from the heights by Crossjon, but was quickly avenged by Benz's lethal blade. With his pride hurt, Northman Crossjon challenged Benz to an equal fight in the arena where they bet diamonds and a valuable bow going to the winner. In Hillary's words: "I later observed Mighty Benz as he slew a Northie in the arena. Traitor Crossjon was quite inept and Mighty Benz showed himself worthy of Cthulhu." = The Fourth Day = Second Battle of Odenstad The day's operation started with the Ascalonian Royal Army being lead by the Dwarven Gendarme Hilary_Duff attacking Odenstad. A heavy volley of arrows fell from the fortifications where the Northmen were, but the Coallition army managed to cover themselves and return fire. However the Northmen's bows were more powerful and soon the Coallition army was taking heavy cassualties. When the armies finally clashed the Coallition troops were outequipped but still doubled the enemy's numbers; a fierce melee ensued in which all Ascalonians were slaughtered but Dwarven Gendarme Hilary managed to escape along with most of his allies equipment. The coallition had been defeated but the war was just about to turn in their favor. Incident at the Air Temple As both sides' armies amassed on the Server to fight it out, the Air Order (Wolfpack) came under direct threat as the Northmen Warband came close to the Air Temple. Initially, the Air Nomads retreated into their flying temple to avoid any confrontation with the Northmen. Taking advantage of it, the Northmen tried to lure the Coalition army by directly mentioning they had Diglytron as hostage. As the Coalition army arrived into the scene, the Northmen retreated, and the Air Nomads ignored the recently arrived players, fearing that feeding any information of the Northmen wereabouts would bring northern retaliation. The Battle of the Giant Chicken Later that day an elite Coallition army composed of 3 Order Knights, the King of Ascalon and Dwarven Gendarme Hilary_duff entered northern land looking for the enemy, the forces eventually met and that led to the Battle fo the Giant Chicken. The war ended in the aftermath of the Battle of the Giant Chicken, which saw 5 Coalition soldiers engage a Northman force of 6 troops near the statue of the Giant Chicken outside Odenstad. The Coalition soldiers held their discipline well and were able to engage the Northmen in a delaying battle while focusing on cutting down individual enemy soldiers. Rumors say that Benz's magnificent blade decimated the Northmen, wreaking havoc in their lines. Soon multiple Northmen had fallen and the rest were mopped up, with only Patrick managing to escape. The North, having lost a great deal of their best equipment to the Coalition, saw that their situation was grim, and terms were sought. = War's End: Surrender of the North = The North surrendered following the Battle of the Giant Chicken, paying the Coalition 69 Diamonds and around 300 Iron. A Dwarven statue was erected on Northern lands, a lasting monument to the decisive victory and veangance upon the North. This was later demolished as the peace treaty had within it no stipulation that a Dwarven victory monument was to be constructed in Northern lands. The war lasted a total of four days. = Post-treaty Conflicts = KingSama's Murder War A day after peace was declared, a Dwarven lord was slain by the Northmen in a series of dubious events, which lead to the Dwarves declaring war once more, however none of their allies agreed with further conflict. The Dwarven army marched on the heavily outgeared Northmen and managed to kill some of them, alongside some Etat de L'or reinforcements. Battle raged the next day as the Dwarven Army seiged Odenstad and after a tenacious Northern defence where each side took two casualties, the war proved to be fruitless. Following rumors of other factions intervining on the North's behalf, the situation was arranged diplomaticaly between both parts. =Aftermath= Following the defeat at the hands of the combined Coalition's nations, the Men of the North, concentrated on recovering economically and keeping their heads low for a few days. Etat De l'Or would move away from the Emerald Island to start building the impressive Palais des Lumieres on the east, however, its leader would remain restless after the outcome of the war, iniciating petty raids, and letting his faction be known as the hegemonic power of the east. The Coalition on the other hand, celebrated its victory and parted ways, the Order seeking to distance itself from the later Dwarven diplomatic incidents in Northmen lands. Following the war, the Dwarven Empire returned to digging great halls and opening a public market, slowly giving up on their military might as they saw no need to engage in further international hostilities, eventually reaching levels of inactivity that threatened the faction's whole existance. This war would mark the last time the Dwarven Empire was considered a major power during this world's duration. Opposing its war ally, the Order of Dalmaitus' prestige greatly improved after the war, its leadership of the war effort had profoundly impacted the Northmen alliance's ability to wage an effective war; by the end of the conflict an array of small and middle sized nations had sought to affiliate themselves with the Order for protection. The Order would effectively establish themselves as one of the server's leading political powers, and supported this new position when tested during the Belkan-Order Late Night War. The Kingdom of Ascalon, having taken the worst from Northmen war parties, would try to rebuild a realm next to the Order, but eventually went into complete inactiveness. Following the war, moderation decided to make changes regarding the use of enchanted armor and weapons, as the war had proven that high end gear meant great nations couldn't be opposed on the battlefield, and melees became nonsensical grinding matches. Etat De l'Or's usual restlessness and revisionist nature, eventually, deteriorated the balance achieved after the culmination of this War. Its attack of the Kingdom of Forlorn would eventually trigger a new server wide conflict: the Second Coalition War.